Poverty in the United States: 2000 - Highlights

The data presented here are from the March 2001 supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS), the source of official poverty estimates. The CPS is a sample survey of approximately 50,000 households nationwide. These data reflect conditions in calendar year 2000.

The poverty rate in 2000 dropped to 11.3 percent, down half a percentage point from 1999. This rate was not statistically different from the record low of 11.1 percent set in 1973. About 31.1 million people were poor in 2000, 1.1 million fewer than in 1999.

The decrease in poverty between 1999 and 2000 was not concentrated in any one region of the United States, although the poverty rate did fall significantly for those living in metropolitan areas but outside of central cities (7.8 percent in 2000, down from 8.3 percent in 1999).

Several groups set record-low poverty rates in 2000, while others tied their record-lows:

People 65 years old and over (10.2 percent), Asians and Pacific Islanders (10.8 percent), Hispanics1 (21.2 percent), White non-Hispanics (7.5 percent), married-couple families (4.7 percent), and people living in the South (12.5 percent) had poverty rates in 2000 that were not statistically different from their measured lows.

The poverty rate for people under 18 years old dropped to 16.2 percent in 2000 (down from 16.9 percent in 1999)-their lowest poverty rate since 1979.

The poverty rate declined more for 18- to 24-year-olds than for any other age group.

While Blacks remained disproportionately poor, the difference in poverty rates between Blacks and White non-Hispanics narrowed since the most recent poverty rate peak. In 1993, the Black poverty rate was 23.2 percentage points higher than that for White non-Hispanics; by 2000 this difference had fallen to 14.6 percentage points.

Compared with the most recent poverty rate peak in 1993, a greater percentage of people in 2000 lived in families with at least one worker, and the poverty rate for people in these families fell since 1993; however, poor family members in 2000 were more likely to be living with at least one worker.

Footnotes:

Hispanics may be of any race. About 14.2 percent of Whites, 3.0 percent of Blacks, 1.9 percent of Asians and Pacific Islanders, and 11.0 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives were of Hispanic origin.

2/In both 1999 and 2000, the poverty rates for Blacks and Hispanics were not statistically different from each other.